The present invention relates to a chamber according to the preamble of claim 1, as well as to a chamber combination comprising such a chamber according to the preamble of claim 2, and a transport method according to the preamble of claim 17.
It is known to transport disk-shaped workpieces, such as storage disks, for example, magnetic storage disks or magneto-optic storage disks, in a chamber by means of a transport device, which can be swivelled about an axis, in alignment with openings of the chamber in order to subject the workpieces, once they are aligned with corresponding openings to a surface treatment, such as a non-reactive or reactive vacuum process, for example, an etching process or a coating process with or without glow discharge support, or in order to transport a workpiece into or out of such an opening. In this case, reference can be made, for example to U.S. Patent Document U.S. Pat. No. 3,856,654, German Patent Documents DE-PS 24 54 544, DE-OS 39 12 295, DE-PS 4 009 603, DE-OS 37 16 498, and European Patent Document EP-A 0 389 820.
In the case of the transport chambers known from the above-mentioned documents, the workpieces are fed by the transport device or from the transport device, in parallel to its axis of rotation, that is, axially, to the chamber openings.
In the case of the design of such a transport chamber, within which, as mentioned above, the workpieces are transported on a transport device rotating about an axis in order to correspondingly be moved axially in predetermined angular positions of the transport device to or from the openings of the chamber, an interaction takes place between the depth of such a chamber measured in the axial direction and the possible axial stroke. The reason is that if the chamber in which the swivellable transport device is provided is to have a flat construction including additional axially arranged aggregates, the possible axial stroke remains low. Analogously, the overall height of such a chamber becomes large if significant stroke paths are to be implemented. In this case, it should be considered that, when the transport device is designed such that as many workpieces as possible are simultaneously transported by means of it in the chamber, this determines only the radial dimension of the chamber, and its axial dimension does not affect the number of workpieces which can be transported simultaneously.
Furthermore, the limitation exists in the case of this design of transport chambers that openings and therefore chambers that can be additionally provided can be provided only opposite the transport path along which the workpieces are transported by means of the swivellable transport device.
It is a first object of the present invention to provide a chamber of the initially mentioned type where these disadvantages are eliminated.
This object is achieved by means of the chamber according to the characterizing part of claim 1.
As a result of the fact that a transport arrangement is provided which, in addition to the swivel motion of the known transport device, can be linearly displaced in a driven manner in parallel to the axis and can also be radially displaced with respect to this axis, it is achieved that, on the one hand, chamber openings must no longer be provided opposite the transport device transport path and that, on the other hand, for the dimenionsing of the required stroke for the servicing of a given additional chamber arranged on the concerned chamber, the also utilized radial stroke according to the invention can be used, the extent of which may be freely selected within wide limits within the scope of the chamber diameter predetermined within by the swivellable transport device.
Based on the above-mentioned known transport chambers, it is a second object of the present invention to be able to build complex overall vacuum treatment facilities by means of such chambers, in which, in a controlled manner, the workpieces, in a freely selectable manner, according to the intended treatment method, can be fed to virtually any number of different treatment stations, in which case the optimal compactness of such facilities is very important.
While, in the case of the initially mentioned known chambers, the number of additional chambers is limited by the dimensioning of the chamber itself, the fact that another transport chamber with at least one additional opening for workpieces is arranged on the chamber combination according to the invention on one of the openings of the concerned chamber, results in the advantage that, starting from the concerned chamber with the swivellable transport device, the workpieces can be transported farther in a widely branched manner and respective treatment chambers may be arranged along the overall transport path.
Preferably, the chamber combination according to the invention is implemented according to claim 3 by the fact that a chamber is provided as the above-mentioned chamber with the swivellable transport device which also has the characteristics of the characterizing part of claim 1.
In the case of the initially mentioned chamber according to the invention or in the case of the chamber combination according to the invention, a high compactness is achieved by means of the approach according to claim 4. This is achieved because of the fact that the drive for the axial linear displacement of the transport arrangement is arranged on the transport device which can be swivelled about the axis in an angular alignment with the openings; that is, the transport device, the drive and the transport arrangement are integrated to form an aggregate.
According to claim 5, it is also preferred to implement, on the chamber according to the invention as well as on the chamber combination according to the invention, the axially displaceable transport arrangement by at least one arm which is parallel to the axis and is offset with respect to the axis of rotation of the transport device, and on which at least one end has a preferably plate-type workpiece holding device.
If the spatial arrangement of the transport device, which can be rotated about the above-mentioned axis, is considered, and then the providing of the arm which is in parallel to the axis and offset with respect to the axis is considered, whereby an L-shaped structure is formed in the axial cross-section, it is easily demonstrated that this structure may be expanded to a T-type structure in that not only one end of such an arm is utilized for the holding of the workpieces but both ends, which further increases the constructional flexibility for the arranging of additional chambers on the chamber according to the invention or on the chamber combination according to the invention. This takes place according to claim 6.
Furthermore, naturally, instead of plate-type workpiece holding devices which are suitable particularly for the holding of disk-shaped workpieces, other, for example, workpiece holding devices in the shape of tongs may be provided, particularly also adapted to the physical design of the workpieces to be treated.
By means of the arrangement of the chamber or chamber combination opening according to claims 7 and/or 8, a high flexibility of the combination is permitted as far as the combination of the mentioned chamber or chamber combination with additional chambers is concerned, as well as their compact spatial composition.
Irrespective of whether a chamber according to the invention with an axially and radially displaceable transport arrangement is considered or, on a chamber combination according to the invention, a transport arrangement with an at first only axially displaceable transport arrangement, it is suggested according to claim 9 to utilize the axial movement of the transport arrangement for the closing-off of the serviced opening, specifically according to the required separation of atmospheres of the chamber connected by the concerned opening and ranging to its vacuum-tight closing-off.
When an also radially displaceable transport arrangement is provided on the chamber or chamber combination according to the invention, an approach according to claim 10 is further suggested, analogously to the statements concerning claim 9.
Additional preferred embodiments of the chamber and chamber combination are specified in claims 11 to 16.
Furthermore, the method according to the invention is also used according to the characterizing part of claim 17 for solving the initially mentioned transport problem.